A New Faith
by mickelus
Summary: New idea I had, if there's interest I'll continue it...so leave a review if you want more, please!
1. Prologue

**A/N:** This is my take on how things _could_ have happened from Graduation part 2 onward. Everything before that episode happened just like in the show. Season 4 stays the same as well, aside from Buffy and Riley's relationship, up until episode 15, This Year's Girl. Then things become a little AU. I am also going to add some of my own speculation on what happened in the hospital while Faith was in a coma (even though we know the Soobies were all major assholes when a situation revolved around someone not in the core group, so their personalities might be slightly different).

**Prologue: Visiting Hours**

Ever since the battle with Mayor Richard Wilkins III, the fight to stop his ascension. The Scooby gang had taken turns visiting Faith in her coma. At first they were reluctant, but the combined reasoning of Joyce and Anya, mixed with what they knew of her past convinced them to give the dark slayer a second chance. They each had something unique to tell her when they visited. Giles often went on about memories he had of her original watcher and how sorry he was for not realizing there was a major problem when Gwendolyn Post arrived. Willow's visits were mixed, sometimes the red head would just sit quietly and watch Faith's slow, steady breathing and listen to the beeping of the heart monitor, her nervous energy sometimes affected the comatose slayer's dreams, leaving the Boston native unsettled. Other times Willow would babble endlessly about things they had all done wrong and how sorry she was about it, she swore she saw Faith's lips twitch to a smile on more than one occasion.

Xander and Anya usually visited together, they gave her updates on what was happening on a week by week basis. Joyce's visits were inherently motherly with her feeling guilty about letting Faith continue to live in the motel when there had been an open room in her house. The Summers' matriarch visited Faith daily, brushing the girl's hair every morning before going to the gallery. Even Angel, Wesley, and Cordelia each visited her before leaving town with Angel telling her to look him up if she ever needed help through the darkness.

Buffy's visits, however, were the most tense. For the first few weeks she just sat on the other side of the room and watcher her sister slayer. Twice she stopped a team that had been sent by the Council to move Faith to their own hospital, she also found several watchers hiding out throughout the town, after twelve watchers with multiple broken bones the Council seemed to get the message and their men and women stopped showing up.

When Buffy finally started talking, she told Faith about her life since their fight, skipping over the fight with the mayor, she wanted to wait to tell her sister-slayer about that until the girl came out of her coma. Buffy complained about college, enthused about slaying, and confided on how she missed patrolling as the Chosen Two.

One day She told Faith about the dream she'd had the night of their fight at Faith's apartment. "I was walking through your apartment." She started, "There were boxes everywhere, I dunno if you were moving in our moving out. It was a little confusing cause I didn't know why I was even there, I didn't even feel the need to see or speak to you, just to be there. I saw a grey and black striped cat hop up on your bed. "Who's gonna look after him?" I asked.

"It's a she. And aren't these things supposed to be able to take care of themselves?" You answered walking up from behind me and pausing next to me.

"A higher power guiding us?"

"Pretty sure that's not what I meant." You replied with one of your trademark smirks.

"There's something I'm supposed to be doing." I said in confusion as you walked over to the window.

"Oh yeah, miles to go." You said, I didn't know you knew any of Robert Frost's poetry. "little Miss Muffet, counting down from seven three oh."

"Great, riddles."

"Sorry, it's my head, lotta new stuff." I looked up at you with a smile. "They're never gonna fix this are they?" You asked, referring to the window in your apartment as I saw an image of you in your hospital gown flash in and out of being on your bed.

"What about you?" I asked.

"Scar tissue." You said, waving your hand over your face, "It fades, it all fades." I looked down at my hand as your knife, the one I stabbed you with, flashed in and out of my hand, I looked back up, feeling a bit scared and hurt by what had happened between us. "You wanna know the deal? Human weakness, it never goes away, even his."

I smiled, "Is this your mind, or mine?"

You laughed, "Beats me." Was your answer. "Getting towards that time." You said.

"How're you gonna fit all this stuff?" I asked looking around the room.

"Not gonna, it's yours." You replied walking up to me.

"I can't use all this."

"Just take whatchu need." Your hand reached up to brush my cheek, "You ready?" I woke just as your hand made contact.

I woke wishing I'd stayed asleep a bit longer, but that woulda probably just confused things more. I brushed all that aside and slowly got out of my hospital bed. I stepped through the privacy curtain and walked over to your bed. Yeah, they put us in adjoining rooms. I just stared at your bruised face, not knowing what to do in regards to you, I've missed you ever since you joined up with the mayor. I leaned down and kissed your forehead, I guess as an apology and in hopes that you were okay with knowing that I would have to fight the mayor. I know you really did care about him, I can't say I understand why, but I've come to just accept it as fact, it still hurts that you chose to join him though.

I know we all fucked up in one way or another, but I never thought we had pushed you away, let alone pushed you that far."

Buffy stopped talking there. She stood next to Faith's bed, the bruises and scrapes were long gone, but her face was drawn and tired looking, probably slightly malnourished. IVs didn't really cut it for a slayers metabolism. Buffy reached out and softly touched Faith's cheek gently brushing her thumb across the smooth skin. She leaned down and kissed her fellow slayer on the fore head once more. "I gotta go patrol now, I'll be back, same time tomorrow."


	2. This Year's Girl

**A/N: **I've gotten a good response to the prologue for this story, so here's a little present to those who've left reviews (updates won't normally be this quick). I've made one change from what I said before, I decided to go ahead and keep the canonical Buffy/Riley relationship (for now) because it helps with the plot majorly.

**This Year's Girl**

Buffy tucked the sheet in on her side of the bed while the morning sun shone through the window. "They smell good don't they?" She asked.

"What?" Faith asked.

"Clean sheets, like summer."

"I wouldn't know." The dark haired girl replied.

"Right, I forgot."

"I noticed." Faith looked across at Buffy with a slight smirk.

"I wish I could stay…"

"But you have to go."

"It's just with…"

"Little sis coming, I know. There's so much to do before she gets here." Faith said as they walked around to the foot of the bed.

"Now I really have to…"

"So go." Buffy left their shared dream. "Don't let me keep…" Faith looked down to see blood dripping onto the clean sheets. "Damn, just when we made it so nice." She turned toward Buffy in her dream, who now was entirely expressionless. "Are you ever gonna take this thing out?" She asked, looking down at the knife in her abdomen, with a wounded expression.

Dream Buffy jerked her arm forward, pushing the knife deeper.

Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles were having meeting in Xander's basement apartment in his parent's house. He was trying to repair a blaster Buffy had taken when she'd left the Initiative. Buffy was worried about Adam, the Initiative creation designed by Professor Maggie Walsh. The creature was made up of human, demon, and computer parts and he had kicked Buffy's ass several days before.

"He could be anywhere." Buffy said.

"Yes, and when you find him, what will you do then?" Giles asked.

"Well, hopefully Xander'll be able to fix that blaster and I'll take Adam out."

Giles had no real issue with the simple plan and he knew it was pointless to tell his charge to be careful. "What about Riley? Any word?" Willow asked.

"No." Buffy answered, "And I can't worry about him right now…I need to focus on Adam."

Back in the hospital, Joyce was watching as Faith's eyes began moving behind her still closed eyelids. She pressed the nurse call button and the nurse then summoned the doctor, who then ordered that a nurse be stationed outside the room, ready to page him as soon as the patient opened her eyes. "Do you think she'll wake up soon?" Joyce asked.

"It's hard to say ma'am. It's not uncommon for a patients eyes to move while in a coma, but her eyelids were fluttering too and her heart rate was changing, so, I'd say she's getting restless, which is a very good sign. It would be helpful if we could have a friendly face here for her when she woke."

Joyce called Buffy on her cell and gave her the news. "That's great mom, we'll work out a schedule so someone is always there. Alright I'll ask Giles to relieve you, then I'll take over after class. Bye mom." She hung up.

"The doctor told mom that there's a chance Faith could wake up soon. Her heart rate is changing in her dreams, her rapid eye movement is escalating, and her ekg shows increased brain activity. So Giles could you go take over for mom so she can head to the gallery? The doctor wants one of us there at all times in case she wakes up. We can work out a schedule after classes. Let's all meet at the hospital, bring Anya and Tara too."

Faith, meanwhile was having a rather decent dream. She and the mayor were having a nice, familial picnic. When suddenly Buff, dressed in all black and wearing a load of dark make-up rushed up and stabbed Richard Wilkins. "I told you I had things to do." Dark Buffy said, staring menacingly at the frightened Faith.

Xander, Willow, and Xander found a dissected demon strung between two trees while out searching for Adam. Anya and Tara had agreed to sit with Faith at night, leaving the others free to patrol.

"Alright we need to get Riley out of the Initiative. We can't risk them brainwashing him somehow. Willow, I need you to hack in and buy me a ten minute window, tricky I know, but not impossible, use magic if you absolutely have to. Xander, I need gear, I'm thinking explodey stuff this time, we already tried stealthy. I'll go in through the elevator shaft and blast a hole through the wall…"

"Am I really worth all that?" Riley asked.

Buffy jumped up hugging her boyfriend and accidently aggravating the injury he'd received from Adam. Xander walked over to him. "Riley good to see you. There's no polite way to ask this, so…did they put a chip in your brain?"

"What?" Riley replied.

"Don't worry about it, we're just glad you're okay." Willow said.

Faith was running frantically through a graveyard, being chased by the evil Buffy. She looked over her shoulder and fell into a freshly dug grave. Buffy jumped in after her and it started raining. There was the sound of a blade stabbing into flesh followed by a grunt. Faith then climbed out of the grave and stood in the rain, looking skyward as lightning flashed and thunder split the air.

In the hospital Faith's eyes snapped open. She started moving and tried to push the covers off of her. "Don't try to get out of bed just yet." Said a slightly familiar voice.

She looked over to see a girl, _Anya, the ex-demon._ She thought, sitting next to her bed she looked to the door where a short blonde was talking to a nurse. The blonde turned around, she was a stranger to Faith, not the short blonde she knew. This one wore looser fitting clothes, though was rather nice looking in her own way Faith mused. "I've never met you right?" The slayer asked.

"N-no we've never m-m-met." The girl stuttered, letting half her face be covered by her long hair. "M-my name's T-tara. I'm a friend of Willow's and also a witch."

"Are you guys sposed to keep me here so B can finish me off?"

"No!" Tara replied forcefully. "Why would you think she w-wanted that?" She asked, managing to minimalize her stutter.

"Cause of how much I fucked her and her friends over," Faith answered then moved the blanket and her hospital gown aside to show her stomach. "And because of this." She added touching the scar from the knife wound before covering back up.

Tara glanced at Anya, who understood the message and moved away so that Tara could talk privately with Faith. "Faith, I know you don't know me even as well as you know Anya, but one of my talents is reading auras, so please don't lie when I ask you, are you scared?"

Faith was silent, studying the obviously shy girl for a few minutes. The doctor entered at that moment, interrupting their conversation while he asked Faith a few questions and took notes on his clip board. When he left the dark slayer decided to trust this stranger, having seen something familiar in the blonde's eyes, something she saw every day in her own mirror as a kid in Boston, before she became the slayer. "Yes, I'm scared." She finally whispered.

Tara tentatively reached out and took Faith's hand in hers. "What of?" She prodded.

"Of B, all the others. Not being given another chance, of not being able to change." She answered, confiding in the blonde witch.

"Well, I can't say that you shouldn't be scared. From what I've heard, they have a right to be angry, though I'd like to hear your side some time. I know for a fact that they all want to give you a second chance. As for changing…a lot of that is going to be up to you. It'll take work and it'll take time to regain trust, but make them work to earn your trust too."

Faith gave the witch a slight smile and nodded. The doctor returned then, saying that if she agreed to speak with a neurosurgeon and a psychologist after a handful of tests, that she'd be released as soon as they were done. She readily agreed. "What's the date today?" She asked.

"February twenty-fifth," Anya answered. "The year two thousand." She added, realizing that's the part that Faith actually wanted to know.

"What happened?"

Anya opened her mouth to answer, but Tara cut her off. "I-I think we should t-t-talk about this in a more…um…educated environment." She said, referring to people who actually knew what happened in Sunnydale.

Willow looked her phone, reading a text Tara had just sent her. "Buffy, Faith's awake, she's calm and lucid, the doctor said after they run some tests she can be released. Tara also said that if any of us go see her we should go one at a time, she's nervous about seeing any of us."

"Alright, I'll go." Buffy said.

"Wait a minute. Isn't this the same girl who tried to kill each of you at least once?" Riley asked.

"Well, she did, but I've told you her story, there were mistakes made on both sides. I'm giving her a second chance." Buffy responded somewhat testily, surprised at her own defense of the dark slayer.

Riley was confused at Buffy's response, but chose to save his arguments for later, he'd reason with his girlfriend to see things his way. And she would see things his way, no matter what it took, she was his after all.

Buffy arrived at the hospital half an hour later. Anya had already left to take care of some business for The Magic Box. She cautiously peeked inside the room and spied Faith and Tara, sitting and talking. The petite blonde stepped into the hospital room, Faith had sensed Buffy waiting in the hall, but had waited for her sister-slayer to make a move before acknowledging her. "Hey B." She said softly, "Guess I've been out for a bit huh? Sabrina here was just bringing me up to speed on a few things." Tara grinned at the nickname.

"Hey Faith. Hi Tara, so, I realize this is probably a dumb question, but how are you feeling?"

"Not too bad actually, not having any headaches, or disorientation. The shrink and the brain surgeon both cleared me, so I'm just waiting on the MRI. I only have the one scar." She added, resting her hand absently on her abdomen.

Buffy cringed at the reminder, "Don't sweat it B, we can put it behind us I hope. Not saying that I'm not at least a little bitter about it, but I did kinda force your hand. Um…I only have one question right now, what happened to my stuff?"

"It's all in your apartment…I'll explain later." She added, seeing Faith's confused expression, "We're all having dinner at my place tonight, if you wanna come along. We can talk after dinner."

Tara drove to the Summers' residence with Buffy next to her and Faith in the back seat. When they stepped inside the tension was palpable until Joyce hugged Faith's thin form. Everyone started talking again as though it was business as usual. Faith could feel the tension still, but knew that now wasn't the time to deal with it. She had a feeling things might get worse before they got better.

The Boston native dug into her food with the fervor you would expect from someone who'd been on an IV for eight months. The slayers' appetites were larger than normal as is, but to be without food so long pushed Faith to eat even more. On top of that Joyce's cooking was always delicious, so by the time the meal was over Faith had nearly eaten herself into a food coma.

After dinner all the others went to the living room, leaving Buffy and Faith in the dining room. "Faith, as I'm sure you've figured out by now, we won the battle at graduation."

Faith just nodded, her face expressionless, "What happened to Rich…the mayor?"

Buffy sighed, knowing that this was going to hurt Faith to hear, "He died."

**A/N 2:** I don't normally write Riley the way that he will be portrayed in this story. I'm not one of those Riley bashers. I just felt that this is the personality this story needed to make my ideas work.


	3. 5x5

**5x5?**

_Faith just nodded, her face expressionless, "What happened to Rich…the mayor?"_

_Buffy sighed, knowing that this was going to hurt Faith to hear, "He died."_

Faith froze upon hearing confirmation of her assumption. Buffy gave her time to process, watching emotions flash through her sister-slayer's eyes though her face remained expressionless. The dark haired slayer looked at Buffy finally, sadness evident in her eyes along with something Buffy recognized as acceptance. "Was it you?" Faith asked.

"Well mostly me and the Scoobies." Buffy answered, "We knew it would be a tough fight, we also knew he'd have vamps in on it. We went around to the whole graduating class, they all pitched in on the preparation. When it finally came to the fighting, Xander and Oz lead the class while I distracted the ascended mayor. We had found that the only known carcass of the demon he became had been found near a volcano in Hawaii. So I lead him, using advice you gave me actually, do you remember that dream? It was in your apartment with a cat."

Faith nodded, "Human weakness."

"Yeah, I used your knife to lure him to the library, which we had packed with explosives. I dove through a window and Giles pushed down the plunger. We killed him and blew up half the school."

"I know he was evil," Faith said after a brief silence, "But he treated me like I was his daughter, cared for me like family."

"He really did. You know, after our fight, I went to Angel, to let him drink my blood and cure the poison. I had to push him until the demon in him took over. Anyway, he nearly drained me, but got me to the hospital in time. They placed us in adjoining rooms. Mayor Wilkins tried to suffocate me when he saw me in the next room, Angel tossed him through the door though."

"I'm glad you got through it okay, honest, but it's also nice to know someone cares enough about you to kill for you. Let's go in with the others, there's something I wanna tell you all."

Buffy and Faith walked into the living room and Buffy sat down next to her mother. "Now I know what happened with the battle against the mayor, and don't worry. I never believed for a moment that he'd beat you guys. What I want is to tell you why I pulled a Benedict Arnold on you."

"You don't have to say anything you aren't ready to." Willow interjected.

"Thanks Red, but I wanna do this." Faith said, giving Willow a genuine smile. "The night I accidently stabbed Finch, I went back…I guess to apologize in a way. I saw something, a bunch of papers sticking out of his pocket. I started reading them there and realized I needed to get them to Giles, but when I got there, you guys had just gotten through with Balthazar. You all were talking about stopping the ascension, so I made a quick decision and copied the papers. I gave the copies to Angel and told him my plan. I took the originals to the mayor after studying them. My plan was to act like someone who'd found a mole in Allen Finch and done a favor for Richard Wilkins, lucky for me he bought it. A lot of the information Angel found for you was passed on from me. I kept Willow alive long enough for you all to work out your deal with him and through help of some contacts of Angel's I got the professor to safety too."

"Wait, so you never actually killed anyone?" Joyce asked.

"Aside from the deputy mayor…no" Faith said, pain washing across her face every time Allen Finch was mentioned.

"Then why poison Angel? And why fight me in your apartment?" Buffy asked.

"To be honest, I didn't know about the poison. And the fight? C'mon B, you wanted to feed me to Mr. Broody. I'd rather die with…doing something I enjoy, than face that fate. Plus it hurt to know you were willing to sacrifice me like that, no matter how evil you thought I was."

Willow and Xander looked between the two slayers curiously, old thoughts resurfacing in their minds. Anya opened her mouth to comment, but Xander stopped her. "Well," Joyce said, standing to her feet, "I think that's enough for one night. Faith, would you like to stay the night here? Xander repaired the window in your apartment if you'd rather go there." She offered.

"I don't think I wanna do anything more tonight, I'd be happy to spend the night here Mrs. S."

The net day Tara, who had a day off from classes, and Xander, who had the day off as well, took Faith to her old apartment. They helped her sort through everything, including the mayor's stuff which had been delivered in boxes. She threw most of his stuff away, keeping anything supernatural to give to Giles to study.

The trio was about to call it a day when Tara found a large manila envelope addressed to Faith. The slayer slowly opened it and peeked inside. She gasped then nearly fainted, leaning against the wall for support. "What's it say?" Xander asked.

Faith handed him the papers while Tara brought her a glass of water.

_Hey there Firecracker, if you're reading this, it means one of two things, either we lost and I'm dead, or we won and I forgot to pick this up before you could read it. Most likely it means that I'm dead though. No tears though. I want you to know that I knew about your plan all along, but I figured it wouldn't make much difference. Buffy and her friends would find the information they wanted anyway. I know you don't like a lot of talk, so I'll make this quick enclosed is a copy of my will and a key to a safety deposit box, in case you need to make a quick getaway. Hopefully your friends give you a chance to explain what really happened. Well, I guess that's everything, take care Faith._

The young carpenter looked at the enclosed paper after getting a nod from Faith. His eyes grew wide as he read the information. "Faith, you're worth about twenty million dollars and own this whole building."

"What am I gonna do with that kinda money?" She asked later, seated on the Summers' couch.

"I would suggest doing nothing for now, or if you really wanted to do something, renovate your apartment."

Faith thought about that for a moment. "Not a bad idea G-man. Let's see the building's three stories. I could make the bottom floor a gym with a dojo, maybe even open it up as a business and keep the upper floors as living space."

"Oh! I like that, then I can remodel the Magic Box and you guys can train at Faith's gym!" Anya enthused.

"The only thing is, I don't know a lot about financial stuff." Faith added.

"Well, I'm sure Rupert and I would be willing to help with that if you want. We've both opened our own businesses." Offered Joyce.

"Oh, yes. Certainly." Giles agreed.

"Yeah, that'd be cool." Faith smiled, "Um…do you need a diploma to own a business?"

"I'm not sure, but I think it'd probably help." Joyce answered.

"Does UC Sunnydale offer a GED program?" The Bostonian asked.

Buffy and Willow shrugged. "Yeah they d-do." Tara responded. "I'm in the student work p-program in the admissions office. It's a-a pretty popular program."

"Cool, guess that's first on the agenda tomorrow…after I make sure my record is clean."

Willow looked at Buffy and raised an eyebrow, Buffy gave a slight nod in return. "I can look into that for you. Locally you aren't wanted for anything, I already checked, but if you're gonna go to school I'll need to check nationally. I should be able to take care of that tonight."

"Alright, thanks Red." Faith said, offering a nervous smile, she suddenly had a desire to get away from the group for a while to try and process everything. "Hey B, you up for patrolling tonight?"

"Um…I guess, if you wanna." Buffy answered nonchalantly, but internally she was thrilled to have a chance to patrol with Faith again. "Are you sure you're up for slaying yet?"

"I don't really know if I'm ready to go slay yet, but I know I _need_ to."

"Alright, we'll do a short patrol."

The two slayers made their way through one of Sunnydale's dozen cemeteries. They were mostly silent, each of them trying, unsuccessfully, to start a conversation from time to time. "Buff?" Faith asked suddenly, surprising the blonde by using her proper name.

"Yeah, what is it, Faith?"

"Do you think it'll ever be like it was? You know, what it was like for me and all you Scoobies after we beat Kakistos and before Mrs. Post showed up?"

Buffy sighed, taking a seat on a stone bench in the cemetery. She contemplated her answer as the Boston born slayer sat next to her. "I honestly don't know. I think we can all make our way back to being friends and trusting each other. I know that it's not just you that made mistakes, and I think we all believe you about your plan, especially after that letter the Wilkins wrote you, Willow might be a bit skeptical though, but I'm sure a call to Angel would persuade her. I want us all to be friends again, I'm just glad to see you up and around right now though…we all visited you while you were in the hospital, there was someone with you every day, even Willow."

"Yeah, the doc told me y'all visited me, which I appreciate, even if I can't remember it. I guess both sides, you guys and me, are just gonna have to prove our worth right?"

"Yep, that's the plan. I know people say clean slate, but unless we all got some sort of super weird amnesia, that's not possible, we gotta all try to forgive and move on." Buffy answered.

Faith tentatively laid her head on Buffy's shoulder, "It sounds like a lot of work, B. Can we start this all tomorrow, I feel kinda drained?"

Buffy forced back her instinct to tense up when Faith touched her, instead she smiled and her fellow slayer relaxed, she carefully wrapped her arm around Faith's shoulders, "Sure thing, Faith, there's no rush."


End file.
